#83: Religion and the LGBT Community - Can't We All Just Get
Along? [Podcast]

Jenn T Grace: You are listening to the Personal
Branding for the LGBTQ Professional Podcast, episode number 83.

Introduction: Welcome to the Personal Branding
for the LGBTQ Professional Podcast; the podcast dedicated to
helping LGBTQ professionals and business owners grow their business
and careers through the power of leveraging their LGBTQ identities
in their personal brand. You'll learn how to market your products
and services both broadly, and within the LGBTQ community. You'll
hear from incredible guests who are leveraging the power of their
identity for good, as well as those who haven't yet started, and
everyone in between. And now your host. She teaches straight people
how to market to gay people, and gay people how to market
themselves. Your professional lesbian, Jenn - with two N's - T
Grace.

Jenn T Grace: Well hello and welcome to episode
number 83 of the Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional
Podcast. It is about the end of April in 2016, and if you are
paying any attention to the news whatsoever, you are certainly
seeing that there is just a lot of activity as far as the religious
freedom bills go in regards to kind of spreading across our
country, and it's kind of a mess these days if you will. So we all
had the beauty and the joy of having marriage equality passed in
June of 2015, and since then it's just kind of been bill after bill
after bill kind of being introduced into different communities to
do everything in their power to do something that takes away
protections for LGBT individuals.

Now today's episode is not going to focus on talking about all
of the nuance of that, because I am by no means an expert in any
way, shape or form. So I bring this up today, and it's not because
I have intentions of going into detail on any of these particular
laws or bills, or anything like that, because I am the furthest
from an expert. I stay on top of the news, and I have a general
sense of places to avoid doing business in currently, such as North
Carolina or Mississippi, but I don't know the ins and outs. So
perhaps at some point I can get an expert on the show to talk in
better detail on what all of that means. And if you are listening
to this and you happen to be that expert, please reach out to me
and let me know, because I'd love to have you on, and just kind of
explain all the lay of the land to my listeners.

But what's been on my mind lately, and I was driving the other
day and for some reason this just kind of was in my head, of it
seems like such an unfortunate state of affairs in regards to how
many people that are coming from religious backgrounds are getting
lumped into this group of hate mongers, and I feel like it's
completely unfair to so many people who have religious beliefs who
do not believe what the media is hyping about, and I just feel like
it's completely unfair to both sides; to the LGBT side who are
getting discriminated against left and right, but additionally from
the side of people who do have religious beliefs, and they aren't
these hate-filled people, but now they're being cast as such
because of a minority of people who are using religion as kind of a
weapon if you will.

It's just been on my mind, and I am not going to go into great
detail on just the politics of religion or anything like that, but
I was thinking about an old interview that I had done with Candice
Czubernat who founded The Christian Closet. I believe it was back
in late 2012 she founded this organization, and it's still doing
well, it's still thriving. I just noticed that she has started a
new podcast which is in iTunes now, and if you just type in Candice
Czubernat- if you go into iTunes you can certainly find that
information, also I'll put it in the show notes. I haven't talked
to Candice in a while, but I was just recalling an interview that I
did with her which was episode 24 of this podcast, and this is a
bi-weekly podcast so episode 24 came really early on now that we're
in episode 83. And I believe it aired sometime I'd say in November
of 2013; so it was in my first year of podcasting, and it might
have been my last episode of that first year. And it's The
Christian Closet, but she talks so much about the intersection of
Christianity and being LGBT, and the struggle that so many people
have with that, and I'm adding this kind of commentary at the
moment, but it's just when you have people who are struggling to
come out, and struggling to bring their LGBT identity to the
forefront, being shamed from a religious perspective is not helping
anybody. So it's one of those things that I found, you know what, I
should replay this episode for the new listeners especially since
we are in episode 83, and this was back in episode 24, so there's a
good chance you haven't heard it before. And even if you did hear
it then, I'd listen to it again just to kind of re-bring that fresh
perspective that not every religious person is coming from a bad
place. It sounds so crazy, and I shouldn't even have to say those
words, but it's so not the case at all. I have such a great respect
for what Candice is doing, and I think her service is tremendous,
and I really enjoyed the conversation that we had quite some time
ago. And maybe I can do a follow-up interview with her at some
point soon, but because this is on my mind, I wanted to put it on
your mind to basically note that what the media is showing you is
not necessarily an accurate picture, and I feel like you're a smart
group of listeners, I'm sure you know that, but I feel like I need
to reiterate that point because it becomes so much more clear by
the day that the media is really just kind of putting out very
small pieces of what's actually happening, and I'm just tired of
all the people that I know that do have some religious affiliation
kind of getting a bad rap for it because it's not their fault.

So that's all I have to say about that, so we're just going to
dive right into the interview with Candice, and if you want to find
any information from this show, any links that we talked about, you
can go to www.JennTGrace.com/83 and that is for episode number 83.
I hope you enjoy it, and of course please feel free to reach out to
me with your thoughts on this episode, or Candice for that matter.
So thanks again for listening, and I hope you enjoy the show.

So I am delighted to be talking with Candice Czubernat today of
The Christian Closet. Candice is a licensed mental health therapist
and has studied both theology and psychology. She supports
Christians who struggle to hold onto their faith as they come to
terms with their gender identity or sexual orientation. She founded
The Christian Closet just under a year ago to be a support system
to those who are struggling. So Candice, I’ve given the listeners a
really brief overview of who you are and a little bit about your
company. But why don’t you tell us a little bit more about yourself
and your story, and essentially what your path looked like that led
you to where you are today.

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, thanks Jenn I’d love to. Well you know I grew up in a
really loving Christian family, pretty typical, and had a pretty
great life. And then you know off to college I went, and I actually
went to a really huge party school university, and was lost there
actually. It was really difficult, and had such a huge desire to
connect with God, and learn more about theology and the bible. And
so halfway through that I transferred to a bible college in the
Midwest. But I had no idea what was in store for me in a couple
different ways. In one way of just the conservativeness of the
school and the people that went there. I had not experienced that
level before. And also I had not struggled with my sexuality
previous to that, and it was literally as if one day it wasn’t
there, and then one day it was there. And so that’s really where
the beginning of my personal story of how do I- how can I be gay
and Christian? And which one of these can I get rid of if at all?
And if I can’t, then what do I do? I mean while studying the bible,
and studying counselling, and so I kind of just was in that process
and took a break after I graduated, and then ended up going to grad
school to study psychology. And had a practice, and it was really
wonderful, I loved it. But had a supervisor that was constantly
telling me like, “Candice you’ve got to have a practice that just
focuses on people that come from conservative backgrounds who also
are gay.” And really loved and hated him for that, because I knew
he was right, and I knew that was my calling, but I wasn’t ready
for that at the time. And so it was really torturesome to know that
I wasn’t comfortable or ready to really tell the world that I was
gay. And so from that point it’s just been a process of you know,
building my therapeutic skills throughout the years, and also
coming to a place of being okay, having really the world know that
I’m gay and a Christian.

Jenn T Grace:

That’s so inspiring, and I have to imagine that there are so
many people who have had this struggle. And I come from a Catholic
background, and I know that I rebelled against organized religion
at a very young age. And as I’ve been getting older I’ve been
thinking more about just different types of religions and how
people process being LGBT within those religions, because I feel
like you see a lot of people who part of their coming out story is
somehow they were shamed or pushed out of their family based on
that religious view alone. And I think it’s really unfortunate. And
then I know when you and I had connected on Twitter I was thinking,
‘I have got to get you on the show so that way you can help get
this message out,’ because I feel like you’re providing such an
important and much needed service to so many folks. I think it’s
fantastic what you’re up to. And it seems a little bit shocking
that you’ve only been doing it for- your anniversary is coming up
in December of doing this, which is so exciting.

Candice Czubernat:

It is exciting, yeah it’s been great to actually think that
there’s need for it, but then also see that wow there really is.
You know I have- part of what helped me is actually meeting with a
therapist, and he himself was not gay, but really walked me through
my own homophobia and my own fears of not wanting to be gay. And so
I know how helpful it can be to meet with a therapist, and then to
have someone who actually understands, ‘Wow what is life to come
from these conservative places?’ But also not wanting to let go of
your faith. Sometimes it seems that that’s the only option. Like
okay I guess I’ll become an atheist or something else. And that’s
really tragic because then there’s another piece of you that’s
missing from a full life.

Jenn T Grace:

That’s really- that’s really, really important. So we’ve already
gotten into some really good stuff, so I’m excited about this. But
I always like to start off the interviews with asking a
lighthearted question if you will. So I like to ask is there
something about you that’s just completely random that very few
people know or would expect from you?

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, something- you know when I had a practice where people
would come into my office and see me face to face, of course I
always looked professional. But I am a beach girl at heart, and so
something that I do that I really enjoy when I see my patients now,
is I wear flip-flops.

Jenn T Grace:

Nice.

Candice Czubernat:

And so I just get to have my beach flip-flops on, and be
comfortable, and so I don’t think actually anyone knows that.

Jenn T Grace:

That is awesome. And that’s- I feel like that’s a good way to
bring yourself into the equation. Just some simple thing like some
flip-flops. That’s good stuff. And for a random note that you are
actually at the beach today as we’re recording this interview. So
how perfect is that?

Candice Czubernat:

It is and I’ve got my flip-flops on.

Jenn T Grace:

That’s awesome. Okay so let’s dive in and my first question for
you, and you may have even already started to touch upon it, is
what was your ‘ah-ha’ moment when you just realized what you’re
doing now was your life’s calling?

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, you know I think it had all these little messages along
the way. Like I talked about that supervisor who continued to
encourage me through the years. And it was actually a year ago this
last May that- my birthday is in May, and it was the night before
my birthday and I was really feeling really reflective and
thoughtful about what the next step for me was going to be. And I
went to sleep thinking, ‘Gosh I just feel so kind of lost in this
moment, and not sure what’s going to happen.’ And I woke up the
next morning on my birthday and I sat up in bed and I looked at my
wife and I said, “Oh my God, I know exactly what I’m supposed to
do.” It was really- I don’t know if I’ve ever had such an intense
‘ah-ha’ moment, but I will never forget what that was like. And the
clarity of it.

Jenn T Grace:

That’s so important, you just saying the clarity of it. Because
I find that there are so many people who kind of just make the
motions going through life and they’re not really clear on what
they want to be doing, or maybe what they should be doing. And
they’re kind of missing all of those signs that I feel like life
just kind of puts out different signs in front of you, kind of like
breadcrumbs if you will, just leading you down the path that you’re
meant to be down. And so many people I feel like just miss that. So
for your ‘ah-ha’ moment to really just have that clarity around it,
I think it’s incredible.

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, I think it was a real gift and I feel really grateful
because I don’t think everybody gets that. That moment. And it
also- it takes courage to listen to it I think. There can easily be
followed by a lot of doubts. And so to keep moving, even though
there’s doubts is an important part of that process. So you must
have experienced that as well with what you do.

Jenn T Grace:

I have had- I’ve had several ‘ah-ha’ moments, and one of the
ones that just triggered in my mind as you were saying the whole
doubts thing, is when I had the ‘ah-ha’ moment that I need to be
having a podcast to help share other people’s stories; it just hit
me like a ton of bricks that I am meant to be delivering and
sharing other people’s stories, but at the same time I was like, I
listen to podcasts often, I am a nut about them, but I don’t know
the first thing about anything technology related in terms of
mixers, microphones, recorders, anything. So that was like the
scary part of my ‘ah-ha’ moment, was I knew I had to be doing this,
and I knew this was the medium in which to be doing it. But I had
no idea what the hell I was doing to be perfectly honest. So it was
just a matter of a little bit of education, and training, and I’ve
gotten myself pretty well squared away. But it’s interesting when
you just know that this is what you’re supposed to be doing, even
if you have- you know you have no experience in it. You just know.
And it’s weird when you just know. It’s hard to describe to people
who haven’t had that.

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, it’s very true. And it does mean sometimes learning
something new like you’re saying.

Jenn T Grace:

Mm hmm. So what inspires you and keeps you motivated to do what
you’re doing every day? I would imagine that just being any type of
mental health professional that you must have some days that are
just really exhausting. So what’s that source of inspiration and
motivation for you?

Candice Czubernat:

You know it’s a couple different things. One, it’s remembering-
it’s remembering what it was like for me. Remembering the real
stories, because my life has really- I’m so blessed now, and it can
be easy to forget really what it took to get here. And so I
remember my own stories. The other thing that inspires me is the
stories of other people. My current patients and then just stories
of other people that I know personally, and read online, and just
the hope that I have for them because I know what could be ahead
for them. If that makes any sense.

Jenn T Grace:

It does, yeah. I’m sure it must be reassuring to your patients
that you’re not just preaching something, but you are actually
guiding them down a path that you yourself had to go down yourself-
like had to go down as well. So I feel like especially when we’re
talking about two really big topics like religion and sexuality,
that it’s probably really reassuring for these folks to be able to
listen to you, knowing that you’ve actually gone through it, walked
the walk, and come out on the other side far, far better than you
probably ever thought you would. So it must be inspirational for
them even.

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, and I know that our stories are all very different, but I
think the level of hopelessness and not knowing how it’s going to
work out is really the similar factor. And hope that it will work
out. So it’s- I’m glad that I can relate to them on that.

Jenn T Grace:

Absolutely. And I want to talk about business a little bit. So
before we dive into the second half of the interview with Candice,
I do want to make sure that you hear form www.MentalCompass.com, sponsors of this podcast.
They’ve been sponsors for a long time now, and their website and
their podcast is filled with awesome information. So please just
have a listen to this fabulous short commercial and then we will
dive right back into the interview with Candice.

Alright now let’s get back into the interview with Candice. So
I’m curious on a number of levels, because I know that you
recently- you are just hitting your one year anniversary which is
super exciting, so you’re still in that start-up mode. But a couple
of things hit me, and I have my list of pre-prepared questions that
I usually go off of, but as I warned you I do tend to go off
script. So do you feel that you’ve had that entrepreneurial- I’m
trying to think of the right framing of it. Like the
entrepreneurial itch if you will within you growing up that made
you realize- Because you had the ‘ah-ha’ moment that you needed to
be helping, but I feel like you could have been helping in a number
of different fashions. And you chose the route of starting a
business. So do you think that that- you know you had that in you
all along? And now it’s just kind of coming out at this time?

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, that’s actually a really interesting question. I think it
was kind of- I was born and raised with that. I think about-
especially my dad or my grandfather started a family construction
business that my dad now helps run. And so growing up with this
idea of you can start these things that you want to do. And I
always love the story, my brother and I wanted to make a little
extra money one summer, and so my dad said, “You know you guys
should start a business where you go around and ask people if they
want you to spraypaint the numbers of their houses on their curbs.
It will be really cheap startup costs because we just have to buy
these few things, and it’s mostly all just sort of making money,
and people will probably really respond to you guys because you’re
so young.” And sure enough we spent the whole summer doing that,
and it was really exciting for us to learn how to have that
conversation with someone, just knocking on their door and kind of
cold calling them, and providing a service for them, and learning
how to make it look the best as possible on their little curb
there. So it was kind of instilled in me growing up.

Jenn T Grace:

That’s such a great story, how old were you guys at the
time?

Candice Czubernat:

Gosh I should probably as my dad, because we were so young, I
really don’t remember. But elementary school.

Jenn T Grace:

That’s awesome, that’s really funny. It’s interesting how those
things that you’re doing so young just are- they’re just principles
that are instilled in you whether you like or not really, it’s just
kind of- it becomes a part of who you are.

Candice Czubernat:

It really does.

Jenn T Grace:

That is pretty funny. I love that he was even referring to
startup costs to some elementary schoolers. That’s awesome.

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, you know we’re sort of like, “Yeah, okay.”

Jenn T Grace:

“Sure.”

Candice Czubernat:

“I never thought about that but you’re right. We’ve just got to
buy the spraypaint, and the stencils, and that’s not very much
so.”

Jenn T Grace:

That’s awesome. So what is the best piece of business advice
that you think you’ve ever been given?

Candice Czubernat:

Well that actually came from my dad as well. He’s a great
business guy, and he is actually the one that came up with the idea
for Skype. And he was like, “You know Candice, I have been praying
for you, and I’ve been praying for God’s direction in your life,
and I really think that you are supposed to do therapy over Skype.”
And the first time he said it I thought, “That’s the stupidest
thing I’ve ever heard. How am I going to do that?” Like it just
felt so overwhelming and I really disregarded it. And then it
wasn’t until that morning I woke up with my ‘ah-ha’ moment of
realizing how it was all going to come together, and actually my
dad was right, that Skype was the way to do this because you know,
I have lived in all kinds of amazing cities where there’s a lot of
resources, and knowing that actually the majority of the country
doesn’t have the resources of a therapist who is well-trained, who
understands what it is to be gay, and to be a Christian. And so
thinking about all those people out there who either are one, maybe
too scared to even have their car be seen outside of a therapist’s
office. Or people who you know, they’d have to drive hours to see
someone. And realizing gosh, Skype was the way for me to reach all
of those people.

Jenn T Grace:

That’s really interesting. And how do you attain clients now?
How does that happen? Since I would imagine since you do do it via
Skype that you can have clients all over the country or the world
for that matter.

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, and I actually do have clients all over the world. And the
way that- it’s really through relationship, it’s through getting to
know people out there who are already doing the work of you can be
gay, and you can be Christian, or have lots of different kinds of
faith. There are so many awesome people who have been doing this
work for a lot longer than I, and so I’ve been able to just reach
out to them and they’ve been so gracious to spend time getting to
know me, and giving me advice, and giving me opportunities to meet
other people, another thing that’s been awesome is to have
opportunities to write, and that’s been a big surprise for me
because I never considered myself a writer before. But that’s
really helped me reach a larger audience and tell them about my
resource.

Jenn T Grace:

Definitely. I would definitely classify your business as a
resource. It seems fantastic, and I know that you have some good
resources on your site. And all of the interviews that I do, I make
sure that I have a post that goes with them, so anything that we’re
talking about here I can have listed, so someone listening to this
rather than getting yourself in trouble by trying to write things
down while you’re driving, you can just go to the site after and
all of the information will be there for you. So I’ll make sure
that I include a link to your website, and maybe some of your most
recent writings as well.

Candice Czubernat:

Thank you.

Jenn T Grace:

So let’s see. I know one of the questions that I ask all of my
guests is around LGBT marketing. So the primary audience typically
for the folks that are listening to this, or perhaps reading my
blog, a lot of them are allies to the community that they’re really
just trying to understand how to successfully do business within
the community. And a lot of that usually comes down to them not
necessarily knowing the right phrases or words or stereotypes that
they shouldn’t be perpetuating, or just really having a lack of
understanding about how to communicate with the community. So one
of my pre-planned questions is, you know for someone who’s looking
to market themselves to the community, in your own experience would
you have any advice that you would give to someone who wants to do
this? That you think would actually help them be more
successful?

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, I do. I really- it really comes back to the importance of
relationship. For me I really think it’s- everything is central
around relationships. And so I would tell that person they need to
get to know some gay people. I think it would be awfully difficult
to market to someone or a group of people when you actually have no
connection to them. And not the need for you to yourself be gay,
but really try starting having conversations with people that are
gay, and ideally have close relationships, and really get to know
them and allow yourself to make the mistakes of, ‘Oh gosh I said
something that’s offensive,’ and ‘how could I say it better?’
within the context of relationship I think would be really
helpful.

Jenn T Grace:

That is definitely fantastic advice, and that was really the
premise of my blog starting, was I have a friend of mine who’s a
physician, and she would have LGBT patients come in and she would
find herself in these conversations where she didn’t really know if
she was saying something that was actually being really- you know
coming across really offensive or not. And so she would just start
sending me texts saying, ‘Am I allowed to say this? Can I say
that?’ And it just was like on an ongoing basis. And it wasn’t just
her, it was other friends as well, and I just kind of became that
central hub for all things like, ‘Jenn must know the answer because
she’s a lesbian.’ And you know it takes some research, it takes
looking into things, and so I can provide a really thoughtful
response to these things. But then I’m thinking, ‘Well if I’m
emailing her this, why wouldn’t I just create a blog, and provide
this information to thousands of other people who have the exact
same question?’ So I think that what your answer was is very
similar to the impetus for me even starting this blog, which is
interesting, which then of course translated to this podcast.

Candice Czubernat:

Well we’re right on track with one another.

Jenn T Grace:

We are, it’s fabulous. So I have another question, and this
one’s interesting and I always love asking this question,
especially with somebody who’s really putting themselves out there
almost as a professional LGBT person. And I jokingly call myself a
professional lesbian all the time, and I would imagine that you
might be able to take that crown as well. So have you been able or
how have you been able to leverage your status as an LGBT person in
the context of business?

Candice Czubernat:

This might not be an interesting answer, because I’ve sort of
already said it, and it really goes back to relationship. I feel so
grateful, people that I didn’t know, I would have reached out to
them- like I said people that have been doing this for longer than
I have, and they’ve just been so gracious to give me opportunities.
Especially to write, and you know kind of risking knowing, ‘Gosh
this Candice person, I don’t know what even if she’s able to write
well, or anything,’ and giving me opportunities to put myself out
there in these blogs, and also talking to other professionals,
other pastors, things like that in their own communities. And so
really my success has been in the graciousness and generosity of
other people, allies and other gay people.

Jenn T Grace:

And I find that when you’re in a position like I think both of
us find ourselves in, is that in order to- I really feel like to be
really effective, you really have to put yourself out there. You
have to put your whole self out there; the good, the bad, the ugly.
So instead of always just talking about how things are so rosy and
so great, you really have to be able to share your story, and
articulate your story where people are going to resonate with what
you’re saying. And I felt that way when I was reading your blog
post, which I believe was titled ‘The Hidden Shame of Secrecy.’ And
I think that was a guest post, right?

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, and that’s really- I do most my writing as a guest post on
other blogs.

Jenn T Grace:

Excellent. I just know when I saw that, you really just exposed
everything about your story, and your past, and how it led you to
being the now founder of your organization, The Christian Closet.
So I think it just- it goes to show that you kind of have to put
all of that out there to really resonate with people and to be
successful, even though it almost seems counterintuitive.

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, it really does and honestly, you know every time before I
hit that send button I kind of take a breath and, ‘Okay like this
is a piece of me that I’m putting out there,’ and I kind of do a
little- I have to do a little pep talk, you know? Like it’s okay if
people don’t like it, that it’s the truth of my story, and that I’m
happy to give it to others, and to share, and just really also you
know have people around me that are loving and supporting me no
matter what, which also gives me confidence to risk so much.

Jenn T Grace:

Absolutely.

Candice Czubernat:

But I think you’re exactly right. I mean unless you’re willing
to really risk the realness of who you are, people can’t connect
with you if you don’t do that.

Jenn T Grace:

Yeah. Yeah, it’s so true. And sometimes it can be a little bit
scary, but I think that the payoff is far greater than that little
bit of nervousness before you hit the send button.

Candice Czubernat:

I agree with you, yeah.

Jenn T Grace:

So do you have a business book, or not even a business book
necessarily, but just some sort of book or program or tool, or just
anything in your life that you utilized that helps you effectively
go about your business? So whether it’s streamlining your business,
or it’s just giving you new thoughts or new ideas. Is there
anything like that in your business?

Candice Czubernat:

You know of course Skype has been huge for me. I mean that’s the
main format of which I do everything, connecting with people
through. And so Skype has been huge. I don’t necessarily have a
business book. Another little piece of technology that has been
awesome is an app on the iPhone called Venmo. And it’s a way that
actually a lot of my patients pay me is through- it’s so easy
because you know, if you think of traditional therapy, you know
after the session you’re writing a check out to the therapist, and
there’s time, and maybe some awkwardness involved in that. But with
this app Venmo it’s really easy for the person to just you know,
connect it to their account and send me their payment when they’re
able. So those are two pieces of technology that I use every
day.

Jenn T Grace:

Interesting. And how is that- the app spelled?

Candice Czubernat:

It’s v-e-n-m-o.

Jenn T Grace:

Venmo, interesting. I will make sure that I put a link to their
website in the blog post as well. I feel like- I think almost all
business owners can probably relate with wanting to have payments
come in on time, and not have that awkwardness that sometimes
occurs in transactions. So that seems like it could be a good
resource for many, many listeners.

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, it’s a really great one.

Jenn T Grace:

So I have one last question then I’m going to ask you to give
yourself a plug and let everyone know where they can find you. And
that one question is what’s one thing in your business right now
that is just really exciting for you?

Candice Czubernat:

Well the whole thing has been really exciting. It’s been really
awesome to get to meet lots of different kinds of people. But I
think about just I love the individual stories of, ‘Hey how did you
hear about me? How did you hear about The Christian Closet?’
Because they’re always really unique, you know? It’s like, ‘My
sister’s friend’s cousin sent her your website, or sent her your
blog,’ and it’s really this person sent it to this person to this
person. And so that’s so exciting for me to hear just how word is
spreading. And so like I said, I have patients all over the world
which has been also just so exciting. People that are in the armed
forces, and you know live in rural parts of- you know way out in
the boondocks of Montana. You know just wherever. So it’s just so
exciting to really see there’s this great wide huge world out
there, but through technology we’re able to connect in these really
meaningful important ways.

Jenn T Grace:

And let me ask you another off script question. When you set out
to do this, and I’m asking because I had this recent revelation
myself. Is when you set out to do this, were you expecting to have
a global impact of any kind? Or were you really just thinking that
this was something that you could deliver to people that are within
your local community, or maybe even just some- you know maybe just
in the United States? Or were you really aiming to try to hit a
global reach, and hit anyone where you could?

Candice Czubernat:

I mean I never thought about the global reach. I think I
probably would have been maybe a little too overwhelmed if I had
have thought that. So it really was like, ‘Well I’m just going to
put this out there, and see if anybody needs it. I have no idea.’
And so to have the response has been really exciting. You know
another piece that’s been surprising is the need for straight
family members to have a place. And it’s been really wonderful to
talk and walk with them through their own feelings. Because part
of- a huge part of the process as you know is, okay so it’s your
individual how do I feel about this thing- being gay. And can I be
gay? Can I be Christian? But then the other piece of my family and-
family members go through their own grieving process and coming out
process. And it takes a lot of time. In fact sometimes it takes
almost even longer for the straight family members to get to that
place. And so I also meet with straight family members who need a
space to process their own feelings and thoughts without kind of
sort of verbally throwing up on their daughter, or son, or niece or
nephew, or something like that. So that’s been a unique direction
that I’ve gone as well, that I did not anticipate but have really
enjoyed.

Jenn T Grace:

That is excellent. It’s so great that you’re inclusive of
everybody. I think that that’s really important in the work that
you’re doing. And I think you’re doing some fabulous things, and I
want to make sure that everyone can find out how to get in touch
with you. So why don’t you just give yourself one last plug and let
everyone know what the best ways of getting you are.

Candice Czubernat:

Sure. Thanks so much Jenn. You know the best way to get ahold of
me is really two different ways, and that’s through my website
which is www.TheChristianCloset.com. And you can learn more
about me on there, and there’s actually a tab that is a Contact Me
tab on my website, and it has my phone number, my email address
which is ChristianCloset@gmail.com. But there’s also this really
nifty super easy contact me little thing, and you can just fill out
your name and message, and submit it to me and it gets sent
directly to my email. So that’s several different ways to get ahold
of me.

Jenn T Grace:

Perfect and I will make sure that I include all of those ways in
the blog post that goes with this episode.

Candice Czubernat:

Thank you.

Jenn T Grace:

You’re welcome. Thank you so much, I appreciate it and hopefully
you and I will stay in touch.

Candice Czubernat:

Yeah, I really would like that.

Jenn T Grace:

Well I hope you enjoyed that fascinating interview with Candice
Czubernat of The Christian Closet. I personally had a great time
talking with her, and I learned a thing or two, and I’m hoping that
that was the case for you as well. So definitely head on over to
the links that she provided, check out some more of her material,
she’s got some great stuff happening. And as always if you want to
leave a review I would highly love that, and you can do so in
iTunes by going to www.JennTGrace.com/iTunes and that will bring
you right to the podcast page, and the more reviews we have there,
the more other people can find the show. So I would highly
recommend taking a moment to do that if you could, that would be
wonderful.

And let’s see, so the thing that I alluded to in the beginning
was the fact that I have a new sponsor of the podcast. And this is
my first time talking about them on the air because they are a
brand new sponsor to the show. I have known the ladies of Teazled.
It’s T-e-a-z-l-e-d, www.Teazled.com. And they are an LGBT specific
greeting card company. So they provide- and this is their company’s
slogan, or one of them. They provide traditional greeting cards for
the nontraditional family, so that they might be able to also
celebrate those meaningful moments. And I think it’s just pretty
awesome that there are LGBT inclusive cards available. Because I
know for myself when I was getting married, we had a pretty large
wedding shower, and then we had a decent sized wedding, and
honestly we got- I think it was three, we got three cards
repeatedly. So it was just basically the most gender neutral card
that all of our friends and family could find when they went into
CVS or they went into Target, or wherever they happened to be. So
it was, you know it stinks essentially because you get three of the
same card over and over again, because everybody’s trying to do the
same thing, which is try to find the cards that don’t have a man
and a woman, or a husband and a wife on them. So it’s really great
to see that Teazled has found this as an opportunity to kind of
jump in and really help provide LGBT families to have cards that
really resonate with them. So I know that if I were redoing my
wedding, which I obviously have no intentions of doing, but if I
were going to a friend’s wedding now, I know that I can actually go
and find cards that have two women on it, or have two men on it. So
it’s really, really awesome, and I’m totally pleased to see them
really kind of kicking ass and taking names these days. So it’s
pretty fun.

And I believe if I’m not mistaken that they already have about
200 different types of everyday cards, holiday cards, et cetera,
and the thing that I want to mention to you is that they actually
offer customized business to business type of greeting cards. So if
you want to have a tailor made photo, if you want to have your logo
or some kind of your branding on it; they really can do all of
those things, and it’s really to me- and this is the best way I can
put it, is that it’s just going that extra step, just one extra
step, that will say so much about you as a business owner when
you’re providing an inclusive LGBT card to one of your customers.
So I think that there’s a lot of opportunity here, which is why I’m
absolutely thrilled that they’re now sponsoring this podcast. And
you can find information about them by going to their site. You can
definitely go to my site which is what I would recommend doing, I
just want to make sure that I can somehow show and track the people
that are going to their site. So if you can head on over to
www.JennTGrace.com/cards that will actually send you
right on over to their site, and it will show that I sent you
there. So I would love for you to check them out. Just go poke
around, see what there is, but there’s a lot of customization
options. So if that’s something you’re interested in you can always
shoot me an email or contact me via my contact form, and you know
we can go from there.

So that is that with Teazled, I’m thrilled this is the first
time you’re hearing about them, but it certainly will not be the
last. So that is my exciting news for today. And the next podcast
that will be out on December 26th, I am thinking right now- and
this could change, but I’m thinking it’s going to be some sort of
year in review. Perhaps discussing what’s happened with LGBT this
past year since there’s been a lot of changes in the LGBT
landscape. And then maybe let’s see what we can look forward in
2014. And then as always, I always like to do an end of the year
kind of a wrap-up, and what else I might include is something
around maybe some of the lessons that I’ve learned this past year.
I did it last year and it’s one of my most read blog posts, and
it’s probably because I’m just- I was really, really honest and
kind of really open with some of the struggles that I had last
year, and I want to make sure that I’m providing you with value. So
if you can save a lot of time by learning from a mistake that I’ve
made, and I can show you a shortcut or way around it, then I would
love for you to be able to take advantage of that. So that’s what
I’m thinking will be the last podcast of 2013. It will be the 55th
podcast episode that I produced in 2013 which is kind of crazy when
I’m saying it out loud, that’s a lot of shows. But that’s also a
lot of content for you to consume. So all of the shows, all of the
past interviews that I’ve done, they all have what I would consider
to be evergreen content, which is basically you could listen to it
the day it comes out, or you could listen to it three years from
now, and the content in there is still going to be relevant. And I
really try to make sure that my shows have that type of sense to
them, so that way you can get the most value out of it regardless
of when you happen to be listening to the show.

Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If there are any
links from today's show that you are interested in finding, save
yourself a step and head on over to www.JennTGrace.com/thepodcast.
And there you will find a backlog of all of the past podcast
episodes including transcripts, links to articles, reviews, books,
you name it. It is all there on the website for your convenience.
Additionally if you would like to get in touch with me for any
reason, you can head on over to the website and click the contact
form, send me a message, you can find me on Facebook, LinkedIn and
Twitter all at JennTGrace. And as always I really appreciate you as
a listener, and I highly encourage you to reach out to me whenever
you can. Have a great one, and I will talk to you in the next
episode.

Jenn T Grace: Well hello and welcome to episode number 82 of the Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional Podcast. I am your host, Jenn Grace, and today I am going to do a slightly different episode, and I think this one's going to be pretty short compared to past episodes. And I know for those of you who've been listening for a while, guaranteed every time I say that it ends up being a longer episode. So we'll see if that happens today.

So as you know for those of you who've been listening for a while, I recently rebranded the name and the artwork, and kind of the approach of this podcast back last episode, episode 81 when I did an interview with Kimberly Vaughn of www.LGBTWeddings.com. So I really had the same focus for a really long time, which is talking to amazing LGBT business owners and allies who are really awesome in the community as well, and I decided to just go whole hog, change the name of the podcast to attract more people who are really looking for personal branding type of advice around being an LGBTQ professional.

Now I said it really briefly in episode 81 because I really wanted to get Kimberly's interview out, and honestly this episode probably should have come before that one, where I spend just a couple of minutes just explaining the new direction of the podcast in more detail. So as you know, this used to be the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast, and now we are talking about Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional Podcast. So there's a couple of changes kind of even within the title. Most of the people that I've had on here as guests- and while this is episode 82, I've actually recorded 112 podcasts, so I had a special series that aired quite some time ago at this point, that was 30 Days, 30 Voices: Stories from America's LGBT Business Leaders, and I released a podcast a day for thirty days, talking to some really amazing people. And I did that probably back in 2013, and every June I relaunch all of them because most of the information in all of them is still pertinent to today, and it's kind of an evergreen topic if you will where it just kind of lives on forever.

So in talking with those thirty people, and then probably I'd say another thirty to forty in the just day-to-day podcast, I've learned so much information from so many really amazing leaders. And the thing that I started to realize is it's really about personal branding, and it's around how do you as an LGBTQ professional, or a business owner, or somebody- I think between professionals and business owners regardless, you're working for someone or you're working for yourself, but being LGBT is such a leg up, and such an advantage I think in so many ways, that I really just wanted to change the name of the podcast to be directly in alignment with how to show you how to really use this to your advantage. And rather than me being the one that's delivering this information to you, I want to bring on more guests to have these conversations with you with. Because there are some pretty amazing people in the world right now doing some really awesome things, and I think that that's the end goal, is to really just continue to inspire and help other LGBTQ people, and regardless of what settings, just kind of be your best selves. And I feel like that's kind of a phrase that's quasi-overused, but I really believe that there are so many opportunities to truly be your best self.

So I want to share with you just a small kind of mindset shift that I have had over the last- I would say maybe the last six months, yeah I would say six months or so, to kind of explain to you the direction that I'm headed in, as well as maybe share with you a couple things that I'm doing right now because everything that I'm doing ties directly into LGBT in some form or fashion.

So for as long as I can remember, my goal for myself whether I was planning on running a business, or honestly I had no idea what my plan was. My goal was always to make a million dollars by the age of 35, and honestly I can think back until like my teens when that was my goal. So I have had that goal on the back of my mind, I have it on a post-it note written inside- I don't want to call it a vision board because it's certainly not, it's just post-it notes with goals that I have hung up so that way I can see them regularly. And they're goals of all different kinds, that just happens to be the really big crazy one. The BHAG if you will; the big, hairy, audacious goal.

So I've had that sitting on my- sitting inside my cabinet on a post-it note for as long as I can remember. And I've really started to be thinking about what does that actually mean? So when I created that goal for myself, it was very arbitrary, no rhyme, no reason, just kind of like a 'hey I want to do this by 35.' It is now April of 2016, and I will be 35 in June of this year. So a while back I updated my goal to say I wanted to make a million dollars within my 35th year. So that way I was really buying myself an extra 364 days of time to meet my goal.

Now as I tell you this, my goal is not that far off in the future. So it is completely an attainable goal for me at this point. My business is doing quite well and it continues to kind of grow, and succeed, and I'm venturing into new and different areas, and it's just really exciting because I'm still sticking to the core of my mission which is to help LGBT people.

However I joined a Mastermind group in September of last year, and we went around, and we were talking about like what our goals are, so a year from now what do we want our goals to look like, and how is that going to impact the way that we're doing business, and all that kind of stuff that you sometimes aren't really thinking about, and when you have a goal sometimes you're operating with blinders on if you will, you're just head down, focused on 'I need to attain this goal.' Now for me going back to one million by 35, that is a goal that I know I'm going to accomplish, and it's exciting that I'm going to accomplish it, but I've been busting my ass for ten years at least in the LGBT space trying to get to that goal, and then previously a lot of experience in marketing getting here. So I definitely chip away at that goal every single day.

But one of the things that has really recently come to light is I don't necessarily care about the monetary aspect of the goal. I've always thought that I want to make a million dollars just because. Seriously it's not like I'm thinking about upgrading homes, cars, anything. It legitimately was just a goal that was very arbitrary and had not a whole lot of meaning to it to be perfectly honest. My business is doing well enough now that I'm perfectly content where I am, I don't need to be making giant sums of money, we live a very modest lifestyle. But what I've recently learned is that my goal to make a million really has nothing to do with making a million dollars, but rather how can I impact a million people? And I will share with you why I'm bringing this up today.

So I really started to see that shift, because I've heard people talking about it all the time. I read a lot of Inc. and Entrepreneur, and a lot of different blogs and websites, and really just information, I'm always consuming information listening to audiobooks, reading books, I have a lot of books that are on my to-do list or I'm currently reading. And in looking that, so many people, so much sage wisdom is around don't focus on the money, focus on how many people you can impact. And I for a long time I'm like, "Yeah, yeah that sounds fine but is that really true? Or is that really the case?" And I honestly had- it wasn't an epiphany because it didn't just kind of spring upon me overnight, but it really just started to become so much clearer over the last probably between like four and six months. And that clarity is around that I really do want to impact a million people. And then it starts to break out of like how the hell am I going to do that? Because I can make a million dollars I think a hell of a lot easier than trying to impact a million people, especially when you work with large companies that will spend $90,000 on one project, and that's one company that might have four or five points of contact. So to me, reaching the million dollars actually seems much, much more simple than reaching a million people.

So I bring this up because I've had a just kind of a complete mindset shift to hell with the reaching the million dollar goal, however I'm certain I will get there at some point; when the exact specificity of that is, I don't know but I'm confident that I will get there eventually. But in looking at how the hell am I going to impact a million people, that's the goal and that is the nut that I'm trying to crack currently. And I do think I have figured out a way, but that certainly involves all of you, my amazing listeners, you've been on this ride for going on four years with this podcast, and I know that you have audiences, and I want to talk to you about let's find a way to join forces is really what it comes down to.

So before I get into the logistics of that, the one thing that I want to mention- and I say this all the time, and I really need to create a video, or something, some kind of infographic, something to put on my website to explain this whole concept because it's honestly my guiding principle and it's the motto I go on of knowing whether or not I should say yes or no to something. So I look at this as a pyramid in terms of who I will do business with, how I'll do business with them, et cetera. So for me, I need to have- it's basically a triangle where there's three sides of it; there's me, there's you, and then there's the LGBT community broadly. And if you come to me and say, "Hey I want to do business with you." Maybe we'll do individual coaching, maybe you sign up for a program I'm doing, maybe you need an LGBT marketing strategy created. Whatever that kind of scenario might look like. There's me and you who are doing business together. Now I weed out people based on authenticity, based on how sincere I think they are, and what has to happen in that relationship is that my working with you, I have to win. So whether I'm winning because we're exchanging money and I'm growing my business, or whether it's something that I'm doing pro bono, I'm doing some kind of volunteer work, whatever it is I have to personally feel like I am gaining from this whether it's monetary or otherwise. The gain is kind of variable.

Additionally you have to win for the same exact reason. So you're working with me will increase your business, therefore you're winning. Or us working together is just kind of some merging of some kind of harmony, and we're both really excited, and we're energized about working together additionally. So we have two pieces of the pyramid. We have the 'I win,' and we have the 'you win.' So that's two pieces of the puzzle. But the third, and I think the most important piece, is that the LGBT community has to win as a result of us working together. So that creates a whole added layer of some kind of happening here. Because if I win from a- I'm going to get paid, or I'm going to feel good about doing this, and you win because you're going to increase your business, whatever that kind of scenario looks like, those are two great things, right? So I'm getting something, you're getting something, we're both happy.

But the LGBT community has to gain something from us working together for me to know if that makes sense for me to work with somebody. Now let me give you an example of how this would go south. It could be a scenario where a- and I had this happen years ago and I'm sure I have talked about it on the podcast probably many, many episodes ago. But I had a financial company reach out to me here in Connecticut and they wanted to market to the LGBT community, and they were very- it's very hard to describe, but they were just a bunch of jerks, let me just be blunt. They were a bunch of jerks. And they were so inauthentic, they were very sleazy feeling, it wasn't good. So I could have taken that project, and this was at least five years ago. I could have taken that project, or they could have engaged with me, so they might be gaining business. There's a whole other can of worms around that, about just their approach not being good for the community. But regardless, so they might feel like they're winning because I'm helping them gain business, I might feel like I'm winning because I'm making money. But guess who doesn't win in that scenario? The LGBT community doesn't because they were really sleazy. They were not authentic, they were not in it for any genuine sincere reasons, they were just thinking how can I get money from this community while saying inappropriate things and making derogatory comments? So clearly there's one giant piece of the triangle missing, and it was the LGBT community. So I easily could have felt like I was winning because it would have been a very large contract. But to me, I have to win, they have to win, and so does the LGBT community. So I have this very specific kind of triangle that I am always looking to, to identify whether or not I'm going to do something. So whether that's conducting a focus group, or speaking somewhere, or developing a marketing strategy, it has to be one, two, three. Across the board, straight up, I win, you win, LGBT community wins because of what we're doing together.

So that's kind of been my mantra for many, many years. And I've really just kind of gotten to a place where I can describe kind of my weeding out mechanism to people in a much more succinct way. But it's definitely how I've been operating for many years, and it works really well because I can decide whether or not something's going to make sense for me to work on, or spend my time on, et cetera.

So in looking at that, and in looking at this type of approach, I started to look at the types of businesses that I work with, and the types of people that I work with, and realizing that they have a very, very similar mentality and mindset of they win, their customer wins, and their LGBT community in which they live, or are working, or whatever the parameters are wins as well. So I realized over the years I've started to kind of draw in people that are like this, which is amazing because we're all in it together is kind of how I see it. And I had somebody recently ask me about competition and who I viewed as competition, and my statement back to them was while yes, there's direct competitors out there, I feel like there's more synergy and more harmony and more opportunity for us to be working together, and doing things that are bigger and better for the community based on us working together rather than fighting with each other because we're competitors.

So that's kind of the mindset that I'm talking about. So going back to the whole concept of how on earth can I impact a million people, it occurred to me that I have a program that I'm doing right now, and I have seven people in it, they started in the beginning of February, they will be graduating in just a couple of weeks at the end of April, and they are amazing people. Seriously, amazing. And I cannot wait until they graduate, and until they have the core of what the deliverable is for this program which is writing a book. I can't wait to have them produce and publish their books because I'm going to have them on the show to just let you hear them, because they're amazing.

So the program is a three month program and it's designed to help the business owner or professional- it's mostly business owners who have a story to tell, who have a message, who want to build a platform. It's a course for them to just kind of get all of their stuff together, understand what their personal brand stands for, understand what their goals are, what they want to accomplish out of having a book; so do they want more speaking engagements? Do they want to charge higher amounts for speaking engagements? Do they want to do book signings? Do they want to create online courses? What is it that they want to do? So when I first started this course it was really around let me help you write a book. I've written two of them, I have a couple of others in the works, I know all of the traps, the pitfalls, all of the BS and the drama that you can get sucked into in trying to create a book. So I came up with this course, and it's for ninety days, and the whole plan is to help people walk through all of that muck so they can focus on what they do best, which is their topic, their expertise, and they can write their book.

So what I've incorporated into this entire program is the whole personal branding aspect of things. So let's not just say- it's very simple for me to say this is how you write a book. Go here, this is how you pick a title, this is how you pick a subtitle, this is how you get it printed, here's how you find an ISBN number; all of that stuff, that's easy, that's all the logistics. To me- and I would imagine they might not agree with that statement of it being easy, but to me that's the easy part. The hard part is digging deep and understanding why you are writing a book to begin with, what your plan is, what your vision is, what your personal brand stands for, and how are you going to impact the world?

So I am in the throes of a course right now with seven people which is amazing. It's seriously amazing, I love every one of them in there, they all have really interesting kind of niches within niches, and I'm really excited for the impact. So that's kind of where I recognized that I personally don't have to work with one million people. I need to work with people who work with other large groups of people to then impact them. So here is basically my new vision for how I can impact a million people. So if I have these seven amazing people in my course right now, and the seven of them have audiences of 1,000 people. My helping them and coaching them and guiding them through understanding what their brand stands for, and how to write a book, and how to get it all done, that's impacting 7,000 people. By me working with seven people, I'm impacting 7,000. So that's the whole new mentality and mindset and the train that I'm on in terms of how I can continue to make a difference in the lives of LGBT people. So some of the people in the course right now, one of them, their focus is on helping younger LGBT youth, and kind of those who might be struggling with coming out, and coming to terms with their identities, et cetera. Another person in it is focused on aging LGBT baby boomers. So they're totally different audiences, but it serves my mission of impacting a million people, because the more people they impact, and the more tools and resources I can provide them, the more amazing it is for everybody. So I personally don't have to make money from a million people, it's not a transaction where I'm trying to figure out, "Oh if I reach a million people and I can say I get a dollar from each one of those people, then yay, I make my million and I reach a million." It's not that at all, not even close to that. It's more of how can I work with a select group of people who have amazing stories to tell, who just need that boost of confidence, or that kind of kick in the ass to get them to that next stage of their evolution, and how can we find a way that they can impact more people?

So right now if we have these seven people and they each have an audience of 1,000 how can I help them grow their audience from 1,000 to 10,000? Because now I'm impacting not 7,000 people but I'm impacting 70,000 people. And how can we go from impacting 1,000 people to 10,000 to 100,000? So in looking at the math from that standpoint, it's really easy to impact a million people. But that means I need to be working with more people like those that I'm working with now.

So I do want to share with you- and this is not meant to be a hard sell or anything like that, it's more of just my excitement for the second version of this course. So the course that I started as of February 1st, it goes through April 30th, it's been so rewarding, it's going to be done in a few weeks and I'm going to be sad because I really have been enjoying working with these- it's all women in the program right now, and we meet every week for one hour on a webinar, and I provide customized learnings around everything having to do with building your personal brand and writing a book. So the book to me is kind of the foundation of your personal brand. It's the bottom of your platform to stand on. So if you have a book, you've written a book, a small percentage of people in this world have written books, so it makes you stand out alone by just being a published author. So I like to use that as the foundation on which we can build so many different things. So how to be a better speaker, how to position yourself, what does your brand stand for? What is your brand positioning statement? All of that kind of stuff.

So that's what I've been working with them on now, and that goes until April 30th, and then I'm taking a month break, and then I'm restarting a next version of it on June 6th. So if you're interested in poking around and seeing what it's about, you can go to www.Author.LGBT. Not dot com, but dot LGBT. So that's probably a whole topic for another day over the fact that there are domain names out there that end in .LGBT. So I highly advise you to check it out. You can also just go to my website which is www.JennTGrace.com and on the home page under the picture on the left hand side, there's something to the effect of telling your story, and you can click on that and get more information. But basically the course starts on June 6th, it will run for three months as well. It will run in the summer months which I actually think is a benefit to many people because it might be a good opportunity to be able to fit something in in a month where maybe it's a little bit slower, unless you are a seasonal business where summer is your busiest.

So in looking at that, my goal to share completely directly with you is to get twelve people in this course, and that is not a lot of people, and I have a very large network so getting twelve people shouldn't be too difficult. But I want twelve of the right people. So you might be listening to this, and you might be one of those right people. So I'm looking for advocates. I think that's the best word to summarize the seven people who are in this course right now. I think the best description of them is the fact that they are all advocates. They're advocating for something different, but they're all advocating for something that's bigger than they are. They're all looking to leave a mark in this world long after they're gone. And it's really exciting to me to think how I could find twelve new people that I don't know personally, or maybe we've talked on the phone once, or maybe you've just been listening to this podcast for years. I really want kind of a diverse mix of people of any type of business, any type of anything where you're just looking to get the message out more.

So I wanted to share that with you today because I'm so excited about the people I'm working with right now, and I am going to start going on some kind of blitz in the next probably month or so, so starting I would say in May. All of May I'm really going to be focused on getting the message out there to get more people into this course that starts on June 6th. And this first go-around of people that have been in the program has been a lot of a learning curve because I've been able to- I had a structure set up in advance, but as we go through, and as they're asking questions, and they're needing more information on things, I've been able to kind of adapt and tailor the course quite a bit to make sure that it's really exactly what they need in this moment. And I imagine having learned from this first go of it, the second go of it I think is going to be amazing, and I think it's going to be so easy to adapt on the fly based on those of you who are in the group. So I guess one of the biggest benefits that I see of joining this group is you only meet once a week for an hour, and there's a private Facebook group where everybody can kind of talk and bounce ideas off of each other. Right now where we are in the program, everyone's in there kind of talking about their book titles, and their subtitles, and kind of bouncing ideas around there, and that's super exciting to see. Just being able to chime in here and there saying, "Oh my God I love this title, you should totally do that." Or "The title's great but the subtitle's off." It's great to have a bunch of other people who are in the same space you are in terms of- I should say the same mental space of like, 'I said I'm going to write this book, I have to write this book, I need some help, I need some guidance.' You have kind of an unbiased party of at least in this case seven other people where they're all just trying to help each other. And one of the things I'm super excited about, it's going to depend on who launches their book first. So there's seven of them, so someone's going to be the first one to do it. I can't wait to have the person who launches first, the six other people and of course myself, rally around them and help them launch their book to reach even more people. So to me I see this as a way of everyone's audience growing. So if my goal is to impact a million people, and in reality I might only need to reach a hundred people to reach that million people goal. You know that I'm not just going to stay steady at, 'Oh I reached a million people. Ho hum, now I can say that I've done it.' I'm going to say, 'Now I want to reach two million people,' and continue to be upping the ante. But I think it's going to be great because now if you're coming to the table and you have a really tiny audience, maybe you only have fifty people that are in your network, or maybe it's 200 people, maybe it's just a small amount. Coming together with other people who have established brands, or who have established audiences, it really creates this interesting dynamic where everyone can support the other. So whether I have an audience of 200 people, and you have an audience of 10,000 people, if you believe in me, and you believe in my message and my book and what I'm advocating for, there's nothing saying that you wouldn't post on social media something about my book being released, or send it to your email list maybe. Obviously it'd have to be kind of in alignment with your audience, and there's parameters around it, but that's the thing I'm so excited for for this group of people, is that once they start launching their books, they have a built in audience to help them launch their book, which is amazing and something that when I first launched my book in 2013, I wish I had that kind of- I did my own version of it, but I wish I had seven people that were committed to helping me succeed in getting that book done.

So that's one of the biggest benefits that I see of this program. I do hope that when the program does end at the end of April, that I will get some testimonials and have some case studies and let them tell you what they gained from this program. Because everyone seems to be very happy right now, and I'm thrilled, and I'm so excited to think that even if they all just have an audience of 1,000 which is just a complete random number, I know that the audience size of those in there now definitely varies. But just knowing that I've been helping seven people for three months, and they're impacting I would say at a minimum of 7,000 people with their enhanced message.

To me I feel like it doesn't get any better than that. Like it seriously doesn't get any better than that. So I wanted to share all of this information with you, and just try to describe my whole I win, you win, LGBT community wins. How my plans are evolving into impacting a million people. I'm sure based on what I'm doing right now with this program, which I'm really loving doing, I'm sure that's going to evolve into something more, or some kind of branching off doing different things, who knows. But my end goal is to impact as many LGBT and ally people as humanly people to help spread the word of equality. Really I just want basic equality for all of us, and I think the more advocates we can help kind of raise and bring into this world, the better off all of us are. So if you are listening to this, and you think that this something that you'd be interested in, I would love to talk to you. You don't even have to- you can definitely go to the website and check out the www.Author.LGBT or going to the home page and clicking on the Tell Your Story. But you can certainly just pick up the phone and call me, it's 860-281-1583. Or if you want to send me an email it's Jenn@jenntgrace.com. Either way I would love to get on the phone and talk with you, and just hear more about your brand. Because as I shared in terms of the pyramid, I want to make sure that it's the three way win. So I really want to weed people out very carefully to make sure that you are a right fit for the program. Just because you think you are, you might not be, who knows. I want to make sure we talk through it, and I want to make sure that everybody gets the most benefit and value from this. So I'm being very picky right now, and I am only looking to get twelve. I believe I already have three commitments so that kind of brings us down to nine already, and we still have a couple of months before it launches.

So at any rate, I wanted to share that with you because I wanted you to see how that direction in my business actually is in complete alignment with how the podcast is kind of changing and morphing. So really focusing on personal branding, and really focusing on how to get more advocates in the world who can impact more people. So that is kind of it in a nutshell, and it actually is a shorter episode than usual which is great, because typically I'm a liar when we get to this point, it's usually well past the normal time.

But yeah, I wanted to just kind of give you the rundown of that. I really, really appreciate you. I would love to talk to you, so again my phone number, 860-281-1583. You can certainly call and we can connect on anything really, it doesn't even have to be related to this particular program. But if you are kind of in the stages where you're looking to create a book, and you really want to build and maximize your audience, and there's some tie to the LGBT community, I would love nothing more than to be the one to help you do that.

So that's all I've got. I really enjoy that you're listening to this, I really appreciate it. For any links to today's episode you can go to www.JennTGrace.com/82 that's for episode number 82, and yeah that's all I've got. Again, I appreciate you and I will talk to you in the next episode. Thanks so much, bye bye.

Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If there are any links from today's show that you are interested in finding, save yourself a step and head on over to www.JennTGrace.com/thepodcast. And there you will find a backlog of all of the past podcast episodes including transcripts, links to articles, reviews, books, you name it. It is all there on the website for your convenience. Additionally if you would like to get in touch with me for any reason, you can head on over to the website and click the contact form, send me a message, you can find me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all at JennTGrace. And as always I really appreciate you as a listener, and I highly encourage you to reach out to me whenever you can. Have a great one, and I will talk to you in the next episode.